Niagara At Large

A Commentary by Doug Draper

”Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
– the late American civil rights leader,  Martin Luther King Jr.

“When you are on the right side of justice and history, you never go backwards.” – former U.S. military officer and Middle East war veteran Dan Choi, thrown out of the army because he came out of the closet as a Gay under America’s finally revoked ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy.

Well, Hallelujah! We’ve had some fine hallelujah in a post featuring Vickie Fagan below, and a video of choruses of that song that went viral on Youtube.  But I am talking here about something else – about a vote by the U.S. Congress and Senate, expected to be signed before Christmas by President Barack Obama before Christmas – to finally end discrimination against gay people in the U.S. armed forces.

Dan Choi with American actress and gay rights activist Kathy Griffin at a rally earlier this year against 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy for U.S. military.

As someone who is not gay but who grew up fighting discrimination and supporting the civil rights movement for African Americans in the 1950s and 60s, I believe the repeal this December of his Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy – requiring gay men and women to hide in the closet if they want to serve their country in the military forces, – is as important as the U.S. Civil Rights Act that was finally signed in 1964 by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, who apparently had every intention of signing it at the time he was cut down. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

If you are looking for a four-legged friend of the feline variety, the Welland and District Humane Society is now overrun with cats looking for a good home.

While not one of the nine cats listed below, Molly is one of the other many felines at the Welland shelter in need of a home.

In fact the Humane Society now has so many cats in need of adoption, it has asked the not-for-profit group Niagara Action For Society NAFA)to send out feelers to its members and friends who may be able to assist in finding homes for the animals.

There are nine cats in particular  at the shelter (listed by Niagara At Large below) that NAFA is helping to find homes for. Six of the cats have already been spayed/neutered. Continue reading →

By Vickie Fagan

My company recently produced a video for Alphabet Photography. It was a flash mob video featuring 100 choir members from Chorus Niagara belting out the Halleluiah chorus in the middle of a food court in Welland, Ontario.  You may have heard of it- it has gone viral.

How does a video go viral? Well, Alphabet Photography had a great concept, they hired a fabulous local choir to execute it, made sure it was properly produced to capture the sound and visuals in a way to engage the viewer and chose an unassuming mall in one of Canada’s underdog towns. When the economy went south, Welland was in the front seat of the bus.  Up until now, Welland has been most recognized as a town with a burgeoning unemployment rate and a canal. Continue reading →

By Randy Busbridge

After a curious and lengthy silence, the Niagara Region held a Public Information Centre on November 30 to provide a status update on plans to finally deal with Niagara-on-the-Lake’s troublesome Wastewater Treatment Plant.  The facility is rapidly running out of capacity, and has long been a source of unpleasant odours.

Could this Parks Canada land become a popular eco park?

The session confirmed what the rumour mill has known for some time:  Region Public Works has narrowed the field down to two options.  The first option is to build a new facility on the site of the current north lagoon.  The second is to build a new facility nearby, in the southwest corner of the Parks Canada Lakeshore Road property.  Both options deliver a new, modern facility to handle current and future needs.  Both options require the draining of the current sewage lagoons and the decommissioning – and demolition – of the old wastewater treatment plant.

Much work remains to be done to establish a final plan, including detailed environmental assessments in co-operation with other levels of government.  One of the key challenges going forward will be to determine how to drain and clean the old lagoons.  Presenters at the Public Information Centre made it clear this was an area of risk, and also of expense.

So here’s an idea … Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano
 
Last week, when I was reading about West Lincoln’s resistance to locate a clean-energy wind farm nearby, I was reminded of past history lessons and their impact on the future.

Canadian tar sand in hand

 
Centuries ago, Spanish Conquistadors were thoughtful enough to bring measles, smallpox, and malaria to the natives in the New World, but they didn’t do it for free. In exchange for their gifts, they burdened themselves with gold and silver.  It seemed to be a good deal for everyone (except of course the natives of South America). In exchange for the inconveniences of sailing across the ocean and engaging in warfare, the Spanish were rewarded with precious cargos.  Relatively speaking, it was easy: instant gratification. Continue reading →

By Steve Rowan

(The following commentary flows from a note Steve Rowan, an ol’ Yankee innkeeper on ol’ Cape Cod, sent to Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper. It is a slice of some of the conservations we have around the innkeeper’s fireplace.)

ar Doug,  I owe you much gratitude.

Through your tireless coverage of the Niagara region, the threats in your towns caused by excessive and destructive commercial building, the corruption of the educational system through manipulations by the leaders of the university systems-whose strikes and actions literally cost and threaten students with tremendous financial costs and excessive time to achieve their degrees, these are issues on a local level that the average reader somehow has to hear about.

You’ve done a fine job, tirelessly telling the  story, presenting the readers with information that will enable change both in the operation of your society, but information that will enable the readers to see a balance perspective. This perspective is about the rights of man and the rights of people in a fair society. Continue reading →

A Commentary By Doug Draper

 Hey,  all you people out there in central and south Niagara.  That new hospital the Niagara Health System is building in north Niagara – the one towering beyond a jungle of strip malls and big box stores, out their on the western fringe of St. Catharines’ urban boundaries – that is a St. Catharines hospital okay!

If you think this new hospital being built in west St. Catharines in a regional hospital, forget it. It is a "St. Catharines hospital," according to St. Catharines regional councillor and the city's former mayor, Tim Rigby. Photo by Doug Draper.

 Have you folks in the central and south end finally got that!

 I’ve been meaning to bring this up in a commentary since St. Catharines regional councillor Tim Rigby pointed it out at one of the final meetings of the last regional council in late September in front of a gallery of south Niagara residents who are still foolish enough to demand that everyone in the region have fair access to emergency and other hospitals services.

At that infamous September 23 regional council meeting that dragged on for more than six hours, members of the Yellow Shirt Brigade, that group of south Niagara residents fighting against the NHS’s systematic downsizing of services in their community hospitals, had to wait until after midnight to find out that the council would not back a resolution approved by seven local municipalities for an investigation of the way the NHS manages area hospital. Continue reading →

By Dan Wilson

It’s that time of year again, usually just after the American Thanksgiving, that radio stations begin playing Christmas songs. I’ve been told that some stations begin even earlier (like in October), as soon as the advertisers start their Christmas sale promotions.

So I’m at work last week, and one of the supervisors changes the radio station from the designated classic rock station to an all-Christmas music station. Tis the season, right?

Well, somebody complained and after much ado, the station was changed back to classic rock music. So what’s the big deal? What’s wrong with playing Christmas music at work? For the record, the worker who complained was me.

I’m not a religious person.  In fact, you could call me anti-religious. I believe religions were created to control the people, plain and simple. Give them something to fear and they’re easier to manage.  I also believe, as John Lennon did, that religious institutions are responsible for much of the violence and suffering in the world.  “Imagine there’s no heaven…” Continue reading →

A Comment By Pat Scholfield

Speaking as a resident of Port Colborne for over 54 years, I was keenly interested in hearing about the Auditor General’s report just released, particularly relating to the health care system and more specifically to the Niagara Health System in Niagara where I reside.

Pat Scholfield

The LHIN (Local Health Integration Network) and the Niagara Health System (the board responsible for managing most of our region’s hospitals) have been insisting that one of the main problems with our overcrowded ERs and long wait times is because people are using emergency rooms inappropriately.

However, the Auditor General’s report said this conclusion is wrong. The report (released this fall by Auditor General Jim McCarter) concludes that a lack of inpatient beds is the culprit. Why do we have a shortage of inpatient beds? The LHIN and the Niagara Health System would have you believe the main reason for a shortage of beds is because people should not stay in the hospital, but should instead go to Long Term Care Homes and/or go home. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Gary Burroughs, the former lord mayor for Niagara-on-the-Lake and veteran regional councillor, is replacing retiring Peter Partington as chair of Niagara, Ontario’s regional government.

Niagara's new regoinal chairman, Gary Burroughs

Burroughs won the Region’s top political job this December 9 in a race that included veteran St. Catharines regional councillor Bruce Timms, former Thorold mayor and newly elected regional councillor Henry D’Angela,  former Conservative MPP and newly elected Niagara Falls regional councillor Bart Maves and former Welland mayor Damian Goulbourne who lost a bid for a regional councillor position during last October’s municipal elections.

The contest was decided rounds of voting by newly elected members of regional council from across Niagara since this region does not hold the regional chair job out to Niagara voters during municipal elections, to be elected at large. D’Angela, Timms and Goulbourne fell out in the earlier rounds, leaving the final round to Burroughs and Maves, which Burroughs won by a spread of 19 to 11.

Niagara At Large posted a piece on Burroughs and his bid for regional chair on December 1 (you can visit it by visiting NAL at www.niagaraatlarge.com and scrolling down to the story). But here is just to recap a few key points about Burroughs with more to come later. Continue reading →

By Fiona McMurran

I like this live-streaming. It’s not as good as actually being present, but it’s a darn good second best.

Here’s how things went down in Regional Council Chambers this morning, Thursday, December 9.

There were five nominations, which was a bit of surprise. One presumes that Pelham’s Brian Baty decided to withdraw his name. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The province’s minister in charge of cops and correctional services told Niagara At Large this week he is prepared to implement the recommendations Ontario’s Ombudsman, Andre Marin if they serve to cool the chance of another security mess that occurred at the G20 summit last June in Toronto.

Veteran Liberal cabinet minister Jim Bradley

 “I think the recommendations of the Ombudsman are good and implementable,” said Jim Bradley, St. Catharines MPP and Ontario’s minister of community safety and correctional services, in response to a scathing report Marin released this December 7, criticizing the province and police honchos like Toronto police chief Bill Blair for security efforts at last June’s G20 meeting in Toronto that turned ended up looking like a civil rights and public relations fiasco before the province, the country and the world.

“I have assured (Marin) that all of the recommendations will be implemented,” said Bradley. Having said that, Bradley went on to say that he thought it was a bad idea for the federal government of Stephen Harper to hold the G20 in downtown Toronto in the first place. A better place, if it had to be held in Toronto at all, may have been the old CNE grounds where there are at least some physical boundaries between any protesters inclined to do harm and the G20 leaders. But it may have been better off held some place else, he said, away from any one of a number of iconic sites anyone interested in violence may want to target in Toronto.

“It keeps coming back to this,” said Bradley of the location the Harper government picked for the G20 summit – the convention center in downtown Toronto. “It was a totally inappropriate place to have it.” Continue reading →

Charges of mispending of funds at the Niagara Parks Commission have raised calls for an independent audit of the NPC by the province’s New Democratic Party.

The Niagara Parks Commission's headquarters in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

 So far, those calls have gone unheeded by the governing Liberals and this December 8 a committee dominated by Liberal MPPs voted down an NDP-tabled motion that would have triggered an audit of the commission by the province’s Auditor General.

Below is a media release from the NDP on the latest development for your information.

Liberals vote to cover up Niagara Parks scandal QUEEN’S PARK –

The McGuinty Liberal government has used its majority on a legislative committee to vote down an NDP motion calling for an independent audit of the scandal-ridden Niagara Parks Commission.

At the committee meeting this morning, all the Liberal MPPs voted against the motion put forward by NDP MPP France Gélinas. The motion would have triggered a special audit by the province’s Auditor General.

“I’m astounded. The McGuinty government has voted to cover up the NPC scandal,” said Gélinas. “We’ve seen very troubling allegations of lavish spending, cozy relationships with contractors and lax financial record-keeping. And it’s been going on for years. You’d think the government would be all for an independent audit — but obviously the McGuinty government hasn’t learned anything from the EHealth scandal.”

The Liberal MPPs who voted against Gélinas’ motion are: Wayne Arthurs (Pickering-Scarborough), Aileen Carroll (Barrie), David Ramsay (Timiskaming-Cochrane), Liz Sandals (Guelph) and David Zimmer (Willowdale). “These MPPs will have lots of explaining to do for their vote,” said Gélinas.

(Click on Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary of interest and concern to residents in our greater binational Niagara region. And we encourage share your views on this topic in the comment boxes below.)

By Doug Draper

In a toughly-worded, condemning report he released this December 7, Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin concluded that the provincial government’s secret passage of a “relic” of a law that gave police “extravagant, sweeping powers triggered what amounted to martial  law in downtown Toronto” during last June’s G20 summit.

Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin

The Liberal government’s enactment of the Public Works Protection Act this June, without any public disclosure or debate in the provincial legislature, set off what Marin also described as “the most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history.” It resulted in “ugly scenes” and a “sad legacy” for city, the province and the country, he added at a media conference upon the report’s release, “and we can never let that happen again.”

Marin was of course speaking of the arrests of more than 1,000 people, the vast majority of them peaceful demonstrators, and the eyewitness accounts of police abuse at the G20 summit late this June. Continue reading →

A Foreword by Doug Draper

Niagara At Large is posting in its entirety the following media release from the office of Ontario Conservative’s opposition leader, Tim Hudak, slamming Premier Dalton McGuinty for reductions in frontline care at hospitals in Niagara and Hamilton.

Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak

This latest Conservative blast at McGuinty, set off in the wake of concerns raised about hospital services in an Ontario Auditor General report released this December 6, makes no mention of other culpability of other parties around longer emergency room wait times and other reductions in front line services.

Most notably, there is no reference to the Niagara Health System, the amalgamated board that has been responsible for managing the majority of Niagara’s hospitals for the past decade.

It was the NHS that put together a so-called “hospital improvement plan” that, for example, called for the closing of emergency rooms at the hospitals in Fort Erie and Port Colborne? Could the NHS not have found ways of keeping those ERs open with the overall funding it has? Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

 “I’m shot. I’m shot,” he reportedly said as he staggered closer to the entrance of the Dakota Hotel in a City of New York he loved and felt so safe in.

There were even a few reports that he may have uttered the word “why” as he crumbled to the ground, hemorrhaging to death from gunshot wounds delivered by a psychopathic stalker he gave an autograph to only a few hours earlier.

 I will never forget walking into the newsroom of The St. Catharines Standard (where I worked for the first 19 years of my career in this now shaky journalism business) a few minutes before midnight on Monday December 8, 30 years ago, and seeing the shocked and bewildered looks of the editors on the desk as they stared at the paper’s then primitive computer screens.

 Before I had the chance to ask what awful thing happened, one of them looked up and said; “John Lennon has been shot and a bulletin just came in that he is dead.” Continue reading →

By Dr. William Hogg – dare I write it? – MD

Some 30 years ago, I received a letter from OHIP, Ontario’s Medicare bureaucracy, with the salutation, “Dear Health Care Worker.” It was sort of like a punch in the stomach. Euphemistic style.

To those useless ‘turds’ I was no longer a doctor. Like an inspissated fecolith I was lumped together, indeed very democratically, right along with everyone else on the front line of the governmental delivery system of ‘health’ care, nurses included. Nowadays, everyone is used to ‘health care workers.’ Only nurses and doctors still squirm a bit at the term. But just think how inefficient is Dear Health Care Worker. A Dear Nurse (or Dear Dr.) would save twice as much in ink alone – let alone money. But more about this historically critical type of word-suppression later. Now for a brief word about word-theft, name-theft. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

This reporter first met Gary Burroughs about 30 years ago when he was at a meeting for Operation Clean, a citizens group in his hometown of Niagara-on-the-Lake that was fighting toxic chemical pollution in the Niagara River.

Gary Burroughs runs for regional chair's job

That is as much to say that he cares about environmental issues. If he didn’t, the late Margherita Howe, then chair of Operation Clean, would not have him in the room without giving him the kind of dressing down she was famous for giving significant others who sat on their duffs on the green file.

I later met Burroughs as chair of the Niagara Parks Commission when he fought an unsuccessful fight to keep the hotelling industry in Niagara Falls from doing those high-rises we see above the falls today. He tried to fight those hotels rising up above the so-called “sight lines” above the trees along the little escarpment lining the table rock area of the falls. Suffice to say, he lost that battle with the hoteliers and it may have had something to do with him losing his job as the commission’s chair.

Then Burroughs ran and won his bid to serve as Niagara-on-the-Lake’s lord mayor, even while losing a race as a Liberal candidate, against Conservative Rob Nicholson, to serve as the MP in the federal riding of Niagara Falls. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

The Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami of 2004, which killed over 230,000 people, annihilated local fishing communities. Those fisherfolk now reside in shanties far from the sea. And tourist resorts are being built where they once fished.

The death toll from Hurricane Katrina was 1,836. Floods broke the levees and demolished much of New Orleans, wiping out public hospitals and schools. Those institutions won’t be re-opened.

 Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, and BP have recently signed no-bid contracts to lay claim to vast oil reserves in war-torn Iraq. The war enabled those no bid contracts. What is the common thread through each of these tragedies? Shock (of the “Shock and Awe” variety). Continue reading →

A Comment by Doug Draper

I’ve always had trouble understanding the mind of someone who would deliberately destroy someone else’s property – not because they know are for some reason angry with the property owner or even know who the owner is, but just because it is there.

St. Catharines nativity scene. Photo courtesy of City of St. Catharines.

In this case, we are talking about property that is owned by and gives pleasure to the public at this time of year – the a nativity scene in front of the City of St. Catharines’ City hall.

Now I’ll admit it. I am not a go-to-church guy. But whether you go to church or not, whether you are a religious believer or not, why would anyone want to smash up camel and shepherd statues for a nativity scene?

The nativity scene in front of St. Catharines’ classic old city hall building off King and James Streets is one of those nice, traditional displays that give many people in the community pleasure each Christmas season.  It represents an expression from this municipality of ‘good will’ toward all at this time of year, at least until someone of ill will comes along and smashes it. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Peter Kormos, the NDP representative serving a Welland Riding at Queen’s Park that spans Welland, Port Colborne, Thorold and the south end of St. Catharines, has tabled a petition from residents in the region, calling for an investigation of the Niagara Health System.

Welland riding MPP Peter Kormos slamming government on hospital care.

The same call for an investigation of the NHS – the board responsible for managing a majority of hospitals in the Niagara area – was supported earlier this year by several of Niagara’s local municipalities, including Welland, Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, Port Colborne, Wainfleet, Thorold and St. Catharines. Following lengthy debates this fall, the same call for an independent look into how the NHS is managing hospitals across the region was not supported by Niagara’s regional council.

The regional government’s naysaying has not stopped Kormos from taking a petition, signed by more than 7,000 residents, to Queen’s Park however. The wording of the petition, as written into the records at Queen’s Park this December 1, speaks for itself. Niagara At Large therefore runs it below in full.

God bless the government of this province if it chooses to ignore it. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Ontario’s Ombudsman Andre Marin will release his promised report this December 7 on controversies surrounding the way security forces dealt with demonstrators around the G20 summit in downtown Toronto last June.

John Pruyn being dragged away by police.

Last July, Niagara At Large broke the story of John Pruyn, a Welland resident, federal government worker and part-time farmer, who had his artificial leg pulled off by police before he was arrested and kept in a makeshift cage for two days before being released without any charges.

Enough stories like Pruyn’s made it to the Ombudsman’s office to trigger a special investigation, the results of which will be released by Morin at a news conference at Queen’s Park this coming Tuesday.

You can watch the media conference live at 1 p.m. on December 7 by locking on the Ombudsman’s Twitter account at www.twitter.com/Ont_Ombudsman.

In the meantime, two Niagara MPPs, Welland riding NDP critic Peter Kormos and St. Catharines riding MPP and Ontario’s minister of community safety and correctional services had an exchange on G20 security in the provincial legislature this December 1. We include the hansard of that discussion below. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Posted December 2nd, 2010 on Niagara At Large

If the voters of Welland didn’t want him representing them on regional council, why should the residents of Niagara have him possibly chosen by the newly elected regional council as our region’s chair?

Welland’s Damian Goulbourne

According to a story posted this December 1 on Niagara This Week’s website, the answer to that question from Welland’s outgoing mayor and defeated regional council candidate Damian Goulbourne is that he is going to put his hat in the ring for the regional chair’s job anyway.

Technically, there is nothing stopping Goulbourne from doing it.  Niagara Region’s bylaws continue to allow for the possibility of a chair being appointed from outside the pool of elected regional councillors, although that has not been the pattern for most of the regional government’s 40-year history.

The last three regional chairs,  Peter Partington,  Debbie Zimmerman and Brian Merritt, were all elected to the council by voters in their respective municipalities of St. Catharines,  Grimsby and Niagara Falls before putting their hats in the ring. But there is still the question.

Even though Goulbourne can, by law, place his name on the slate for regional chair,  should he? Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Bruce Timms, a veteran St. Catharines regional councillor, has thrown his hat in the ring for Niagara Region’s top political job.

St. Catharines regional councillor Bruce Timms delares for regional chair's job

Timms is also a native of Port Colborne – born in the hospital in that community that the Niagara Health System has been systematically shut down – and he promises, as regional chair, to keep the interests and concerns of people in Niagara’s central and south end fully in mind.

“I was born in Port Colborne and grew up working in Welland, … so I can bring a regional perspective to the job that few others can beat.”

On the subject of amalgamation, Timms told NAL he’s more focused on amalgamating services like water and wastewater on behalf of taxpayers than he is on amalgamating municipalities. At the same time, he strongly favours reforming regional government in ways he feels would have the Region and 12 municipalities working more closely together on matters of common concern and interest. (NAL is including below a recent comment Timms made to another story on this site that outlines his vision for regional reform.). Continue reading →

 By Doug Draper

(This profile of Peter Kormos,  the Ontario NDP representative for the riding of  Welland, was written by Doug Draper some five years ago.  It was never published because the magazine that asked for it went the usual way so many  mainstream publications go today. It became predominantly a “shopper” – a publication at that time became the equivalent of a “shopper” and features of this nature were no longer welcomed.

NAL lifts it from the vaults  now as an insight into a Niagara politician, whether you like him or not, who has taken his place as an icon in Ontario politics.)

“A working class hero is something to be.”

– a lyric by John Lennon

“I don’t change my values the way some people change their socks.”

– Peter Kormos

In the dimly lit banquet room of Club Social on Welland’s gritty east side, a raucous chant of “Peter, Peter, Peter” rolls up from the floor. It is the night of the October, 2003 provincial election and, to no one’s surprise, the numbers on a nearby tote board show Peter Kormos leading his nearest challenger by a margin of two to one.

Peter Kormos being dragged away by police at a 1960s protest for public access to our lakeshores at Sherkston Beach on Lake Erie. Photo courtesy of the Kormos constituency office and Joyce Holman, Florida.

Kormos, in this election, is one of only seven New Democratic Party candidates across Ontario to survive what some political pundits are describing as a “catastrophic night” for the NDP – leaving it one seat short of the number it needs to hold on to official party status. But there is no hint of catastrophe at Club Social on this night.

For a fifth straight election since 1988, when he replaced the retiring NDP stalwart Mel Swart in what was then the old riding of Welland-Thorold, this reputed ‘bad boy of Queen’s Park’, who many in this room regard as a working class hero, will be going back to the provincial legislature to, as many of them are proud to say it, ‘give em heck’ again. Wearing his dress shirt unbuttoned at the neck and his trademark cowboy boots, Kormos finally takes the stage and the chant of “Peter, Peter, Peter” breaks into cheers.

The man who has been called everything from a “maverick” to a “fast-tongued hard head” and juvenile delinquent” could not be more at home delivering a victory speech touching on every theme that has fueled him, first as a young activist, then as a criminal lawyer and a politician.  In this room, located a few blocks away from what he describes as the “modest red-brick bungalow” his parents built in the early 1950s and from the Atlas Steels plant where his father and so many others in the neighbourhood put in long, dirty hours to support their families, Kormos reminds his supporters of all the “hard work and sacrifice” responsible for so many of the freedoms and opportunities we take for granted today. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

Long ago I learned that life isn’t fair, but I still get angry when it isn’t.

If it were fair, instead of making excuses for the Tar Sands and the quick death of Bill C-311, our Prime Minister would be celebrating the creation of Green jobs.  After all, we’d be benefitting from a renaissance of research, development, and the study of the European way of saving the environment. We’d be driving small eco-friendly cars, taking fast trains and trolleys, and breathing cleaner air too.  Of course the clean air would contribute to increased longevity and fewer deaths, but that’s another story. Continue reading →

By Brent Stewart

On a rainy Tuesday evening, about 130 kilometers down the highway from where it all took place, John Pruyn and his wife Susan recount the events of that June day in Toronto, to a small but receptive crowd at St. Mark’s Anglican Church in Niagara-On-The-Lake. Accompanying them in telling their G20 ‘horror stories’ are Steve Disher and Josh Burman, two young men from Hamilton, whose paths crossed with John’s that fateful Saturday evening in Queen’s Park.

John Pruyn. File photo by Doug Draper

I learned about John Pruyn’s experience at the G20 when Doug Draper first broke the story on Niagara At Large, in July, but there’s something altogether different about witnessing John himself detailing the events of that weekend. Hearing his first-hand account of being brutalized, degraded, and humiliated by riot police at Queen’s Park is unsettling, to say the least. John is quiet, responsible and unassuming, and practically a neighbour—the fact that he is such an ordinary, decent guy highlights the bizarre and indiscriminate nature of police actions that weekend. John and others like him were rounded up, harassed and arrested in the designated free speech zone, of all places—an area that demonstrators and bystanders were told was a safe haven for exercising their civil liberties. The police actions showed a callous disregard not only for the safety and the civil rights of those in attendance that day, but also for the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms itself.
John’s wife, Susan, goes on to tell her story of the tumultuous events of that weekend, relating the twenty-seven nerve-racking hours she spent desperately trying to locate John, and her daughter, Sarah, while they were being held at a makeshift detention center in a defunct film studio on Eastern Avenue. Steve and Josh then take turns recounting their experiences during the G20 summit weekend in Toronto. Continue reading →

 By Steve Rowan

(This guest contributor shares a voice from Brewster, Massachusetts. He  also owns a residence on Wolfe Island, Ontario.)

Well it’s nice to see that your country works like every other corrupted
government.

Enjoy the scrutiny. … Next your Christian fundamentalists
will hook up with your rabid capitalist (Whigs??) and soon you’ll be
able to save money on social security, medical costs, education costs
and other social programs. … All with the ideas of … ‘cutting
out waste’, at which time I think – ‘ what a shame’.

But who am I to complain, supporting a opportunistic exploitative, corrupt and criminal military power…even I can see Obama’s duplicity and I wonder about the reason his hair is turning gray….a young idealistic man facing really intense and dizzying pressures.  I too believe in the ‘truth and hope’ that caused his election and like others am broken and dispirited by the continued corruption of our legal and legislative branches. Continue reading →

By Fiona McMurran

American war resisters resident in Canada now have a Niagara support group.

A recent gathering of war resisters and their families along the Canada/U.S. border in Fort Erie, Ontario.

On Thursday, Nov. 18, people from both sides of the border met at the Guild Hall to form the War Resisters Support Campaign of Niagara,  Ontario. Joining concerned local residents were members from the Toronto-based War Resisters Support Campaign, including war resister Kimberly Rivera, as well as three members of the Buffalo Chapter of Veterans for Peace. We met in the Guild Hall in Port Colborne,  Ontario as guests of Anglican Minister Rev. Rob Hurkmans, who,  along with Fort Erie minister Rev. Mark Gladding, has been offering help to Iraq resister Jeremy Brockway and his family,  now residents of Port Colborne.

The War Resisters Support Campaign has been providing help and support since 2004, when Jeremy Hinzman and his family crossed the border.  Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

“Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your country.”

Those words,  spoken by the late President John F. Kennedy following his inauguration on January 20, 1961,  inspired generations of Americans to service and self-sacrifice on behalf of their country, their communities and less fortunate others.

The Kennedy family compound on Cape Cod. Photo by Doug Draper

Today, it is hard to imagine almost any political leader on either side of the Canada/U.S. border speaking those sorts of words for fear of being derided by the masses as a “socialist” or something worse.

‘Putting our country before ourselves? We want a tax cut!’

I thought about those words and how far so many of us – Americans and Canadians – have strayed from them as I walked this past November 23 along a Cape Cod beach in Hyannisport where the Kennedy compound looks out over Nantucket Sound. The spirit behind them now seems as broken as a set of old wooden stairs leading up from the beach to the backyard of the compound where John and brothers Robert and Ted (all of them gone now) once picnicked with family and friends following a game of touch football. Continue reading →

By Chris George

As a volunteer with the Niagara Anaphylaxis Support and Knowledge (NASK) association, I am very hopeful for the upcoming meeting with Members of Parliament in Ottawa this December 7th.

For the past five months, our local group has worked with Niagara MPs to help raise awareness of severe, life-threatening allergies among MPs and the Ottawa bureaucracy. Since May, Niagara-West Glanbrook MP Dean Allison has introduced a motion in the House of Commons and now he is hosting a meeting of his colleagues to discuss what can be done for Canadians who must cope with the medical condition anaphylaxis.

My journey to this Parliament Hill meeting started more than five years ago, when my youngest child (now 7-years old) had two, separate horrible reactions at meal times – and our family ended up at the St. Catharines General Hospital praying he’d be alright. My son was diagnosed with severe allergies to nuts, peanuts and the whole legume family. His subsequent tests through the years have revealed his allergies will likely be with him throughout his life. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Rod Minor

I have had the “pleasure” of experiencing regional government and amalgamation from two vantage points: I’ve lived in Lowbanks all my life and our family business has been in Port Colborne for over 35 years. I’ve seen the effects of Regional Government and amalgamation at various levels and times throughout those years in two distinct regions.

 The City of Niagara!?!?! Let me tell you, that is not a very comforting thought unless you happen to live in St. Catharines.

We have gone through all of this already in Haldimand. We have went from regional government under Haldimand-Norfolk to the Town of Haldimand. There is no longer a Town of Dunnville, Caledonia, Hagersville, Cayuga, etc. There is one mega-town – Haldimand – and the benefits are miniscule under the current philosophy.
 
Peter  Partington (Niagara’s outgoing regional chairman) wants the new chair of regional council to continue where he left off in creating the mega-city of Niagara. He would be hard pressed to find anyone in support of the notion of the mega-city outside of St. Catharines and the regional council chambers. Continue reading →

From Keira Knowles, AIDS Niagara
 
AIDS Niagara is hosting a new event on Saturday, November 27 to empower teens to push back the spread of AIDS.
 
The event, called ‘Move to Change’, will host high school students at a dance at Isaac’s Pub at Brock University. The event is aimed at educating and encouraging them to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS at home and abroad. Half of new HIV infections every day are people younger than 25.
 
The dance, which is part of AIDS Awareness Week, was inspired by an international effort called Dance4Life. With Dance4Life, students from countries such as Mexico, Zimbabwe, Russia and the U.K. participate in activities that use dance, music and video to encourage action against HIV/AIDS. Move to Change is a unique Niagara event inspired by this international phenomenon. Continue reading →

From Buffalo’s Central Library

The fine press works of William Morris, the English craftsman, writer and poet who revived the art and craft of printing in the 1890s are featured in a Rare Book Room exhibit at Buffalo’s  downtown Central Library in Lafayette Square.

The Library’s exhibit celebrates the works of William Morris (1834-1896), 19th century English craftsman. He is often remembered today for Morris & Co. which manufactured and sold distinctive furnishings and décor including wallpaper, stained glass, rugs, and tapestries. However, he also founded one of the most famous private presses – the Kelmscott Press – where he produced beautiful and limited-edition, hand-crafted books.

This exhibition showcases works of the Kelmscott Press from the Library’s collection, including the renowned Chaucer, and a selection of books from presses influenced by Morris, including local presses as the Roycroft (East Aurora, N.Y.) and Aries (Eden, N.Y.). Continue reading →

 By Doug Draper

This Christmas season will obviously be a difficult one for the surviving members of Reilly Anzovino’s family.

A fundraiser for Reilly Anzovino and family

What has haunted Reilly’s family and other members of her community ever since is whether she might still be alive today had the Niagara Health System – the provincially-sponsored board responsible for operating most of the hospitals in the region – not included in a controversial “Hospital Improvement Plan” it released two summers ago decisions to close down, earlier last year, emergency departments at hospitals in Fort Erie and neighbouring Port Colborne.

This question will be a focus of an Ontario coroner’s inquest, likely to commence in the first half of next year, and a citizens’ group called the Yellow Shirt Brigade – mostly south Niagara residents fighting for fair access to hospital services in that part of the region – is hosting a Christmas fundraiser to support the Anzovino family in whatever costs they are burdened with during the course of the inquest. Continue reading →

 By Dave Toderick

It wouldn’t have been visible to you had you been in orbit around the earth, but October 10, 2010 was a special day for our planet.

Students at Maple Crest Early School in Fonthill plant a pear tree in the school's garden at a global work party to bring attention to the need to take meaningful action on climate change.

A total of 7,347 events were held in 188 countries, all with the aim of sending a message to our political leaders: “We’re getting to work to find solutions to the climate change crisis. So should you.”

People built energy efficient stoves in Guatemala, and water storage tanks in Peru. Workers planted and harvested at a former derelict site, now an urban garden in Germany. Volunteers repaired bicycles for free in New Zealand. Workers installed solar panels in the Maldives.

According to some, all of these people were wasting their time. In fact, they were actually doing harm because they were detracting attention from the real problems we face.

Among this group are some who are simply badly misinformed. They genuinely believe that the burning of fossil fuels by humans is not the reason the earth’s climate is changing. They don’t understand that climate experts have investigated and ruled out other climate forcings, such as some change in the relationship between the sun and the earth, or volcanoes.

But also among this group are some who do understand the science, and who are deliberately trying to mislead the general public. They are paid by the oil and gas industry. Continue reading →

Niagara At Large has posted a number of news and commentary pieces on the matter of climate change.

One of the most recent posts by NAL publisher Doug Draper, available for viewing on http://www.niagaraatlarge.com, slams Canada’s un-elected, Conservative-dominated Senate for killing a bill for a plan for reducing greenhouse gases that had previously received the support of a majority of duly elected members of the country’s parliament.

Niagara At Large has made it clear from its inception 11 months ago that this is a site that welcomes views that may run counter to those of its publisher and contributors. We don’t want to be an echo chamber that preaches to choir. We want to be venue for diverse views and for stimulating discussion and debate.

In that spirit, we are posting below a piece by Tom Harris, executive director of the Ottawa-based International Climate Science Coalition that questions that applauds the Senate for voting down that same climate bill.  It is a column that was recently published in the Montreal Gazette and one Harris agreed to share with NAL.

As always, we encourage you to share your views in the comment boxes below this piece. Remember always to keep those views civil and attached to your own name in keeping with NAL’s comment policy, which you can visit with a click at the top of our front page. Thank you, Doug Draper

Canada’s  Senate  Right To Kill Cimate Bill – “Sober, second thought” trumps political correctness on climate change

By Tom Harris

On the surface, NDP Leader Jack Layton’s outrage appears justified. It is certainly unusual that an un-elected Senate would kill a bill passed by the majority of the elected Members of Parliament.

Tom Harris, executive director of International Climate Science Coalition

It is even more extraordinary that this was done after only five days of relatively brief debate by Senators. Yet the Senate did the right thing. Bill C-311, “An Act to ensure Canada assumes its responsibilities in preventing dangerous climate change”, set, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper said, “irresponsible targets” that would have led to “throwing hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of people out of work.”

But Harper missed the opportunity to tell Canadians that the bill was a disaster also because it would accomplish essentially nothing with respect to global climate even if we did meet its draconian targets. It would not have even set a good example to the world’s leading emitters of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases supposedly responsible for “dangerous climate change.”

Indeed, even it were possible to ensure “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere”, as stated in the Purpose of C-311, climate would still change. As Professor Tim Patterson of Carleton University’s Department of Earth Sciences testified before the House of Commons Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development in 2005, “…it’s obvious that climate is and always has been variable. In fact, the only constant about climate is change; …. We certainly have no chance of stopping this natural phenomenon.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

This October’s municipal elections may already be fading from memory but the campaigning hasn’t stopped at the region.
                                                
A few weeks from this Thursday, a newly inaugurated regional council made up of 19 directly elected councillors and the mayors of Niagara’s 12 local municipalities will be choosing a new chairman to replace the retiring Peter Partington.

To some out there, this business of choosing a chairman or “chair” (when the job went a decade ago to Debbie Zimmerman, who was the only woman to hold it to date) may seem like little more than a ritual. “Isn’t the regional chairman just a figurehead,” one of my neighbours asked me recently
.
Having watched five of them in action now, starting 40 years ago with Niagara regional government’s very first chairman, John Campbell, and continuing with Wilbert Dick, Brian Merritt, Zimmerman and Peterson, my answer to that question is a resounding ‘No’! 

Whoever gets this job will be setting an overall tone and framing policy for the next four years for a regional government that is responsible for spending five out of every ten dollars you shell out each year in property taxes. Continue reading →

 Brian Baty, who has served Niagara, Ontario for seven years as a regional councillor for Pelham, is the first to officially declare his intentions to run for chairman of Niagara’s regional government in a vote among newly elected regional councillors that will commence this December 9.

Pelham regional councillor and declared candidate for Niagara regional chair, Brian Baty

The choice of a new regional chairman to replace the retiring Peter Partington is an important one because the person who assumes that seat plays a lead role in framing policies and programs impacting on the lives of people across Niagara for years to come.

With that in mind, Niagara At Large is posting Baty’s media release and resume without modification and this news site is prepared to do the same for any other person  publicly declaring their candidacy for this important job.

We urge our many readers and subscribers to share your views below on who you would like to see at the top person on regional council for the next four years, whether they be an elected member of the council or someone chosen from outside.

The St. Catharines/Thorold Chamber of Commerce, for example, has already published their endorsement, in daily newspapers for Damian Goulbourne, an outgoing Wellland mayor who lost a bid in this October’s municipal elections to serve as regional councillor for that city, for the regional chairman position. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

We’ve had the municipal elections in Niagara, Ontario this October, but it is not over!

Should this regional chairman, Peter Partington, be replaced by someone elected by Niagara residents?

The next important decision to be made in municipal governance in Niagara, Ontario is the choice of a new chairman who will be the top politician at the regional council level for the next four years.

Whoever is elected to this position, by a vote this coming December 9 by 31 newly elected regional councillors and mayors across Niagara , will set the tone for where we go in this region around policies and programs over that four-year term. It is an election that occurs at a time in a region that faces tremendous challenges and opportunities.

There is now a grassroots petition going around, urging newly elected regional councillors not to consider a candidacy by someone outside their elected ranks. There have been reports in the local media that some un-elected people may be vying for the top seat at the region, including Damian Goulbourne, the outgoing mayor of Welland who lost his bid for a regional council seat in his city. Goulbourne declared his wish to throw in his hat for the regional chair’s seat while he was running for one of two Welland regional council seats – won by incumbents George Marshall and Cindy Forster, in her case a former mayor of Welland. Continue reading →

 A Foreword by Doug Draper, publisher of Niagara At Large

Have you Niagarians on the Ontario side of the river opened up your Hydro One bill lately?

Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan

Might give you more than a shock than you would get from sticking your finger in a light socket.

Energy costs are obviously a major concern for residents in Niagara, Ontario, given the comments and email Niagara At Large has received in recent months, and  in that spirit , this site is posting the following media release from the Ontario government and its finance minister, Dwight Duncan, released this November 18, on new measures for offering some “relief” to hydro consumers.

We encourage you, our readers, to follow this up by sharing your own comments – good or bad – on this government announcement. Our American neighbours may wish to join in with a few of their own ideas or concerns. You can post your comments at the bottom of this site.

Ontario Introduces Electricity Cost Relief – McGuinty Government Introduces New Measures to Help Ontario Families and Reduce Debt Continue reading →

A Foreword by Doug Draper

If you need one more reason why Canada’s Senate should either be elected or be abolished altogether, this may be it.

Canada's unelected Senate kills climage change bill approved by a majority of the country's elected parliamentarians.

Mark this past Tuesday, November 16 down on your calendar as a date that will live in infamy for a Canada that could once hold itself up with pride as a leader when it comes environmental protection, to nation that has become a filthy rogue among developed and rapidly developing countries around the world like the United States and China.

Canada has been tumbling off its green pedestal for the better party of two decades now, through the successive federal Liberal governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, and through the current Conservative government of Stephen Harper. But few single decisions have the potential to disgrace Canada more on the environmental front than one made this November by this country’s non-elected Senate to kill Bill C-311 – climate change legislation pushed by the opposition NDP, Liberals and Parti Quebecois that would have called for a 20 per cent reduction of greenhouse levels below 1990 levels by 2020. Continue reading →

 A Commentary by Mark Taliano

Decades ago, when in France, I noticed that fuel cost about four times what it cost in Canada, and vehicles there were tiny compared to their North American counterparts.

A similar observation could have been made had I been in Asia. During the most recent North American automotive industry meltdown, I learned that historically, the Japanese spent a far greater percentage of earnings on Resource and Development than their North American counterparts.

Today, it is apparent that those two advantages : an early start, and heavier investment in Resource and Development, gave an edge to Asian car makers over North American car manufacturers. Visiting a Honda dealership the other day, I learned that they weren’t going to pursue “clean diesel’ products (interesting euphemism) in North America, but were to focus instead on hybrid cars and hybrid technology. That decision makes sense and is smart: save fuel and the environment at the same time. No doubt hybrid technology will be growing by leaps and bounds too. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Okay, so you say you don’t care for Niagrara’s regional government or may even want to see it abolished.

Niagara Region's chief administrator, Mike Trojan, is ready to meet with you around your questions and concern about the regional government.

 During this October’s Niagara, Ontario municipal election campaign, we heard everyone from those who want to reform regional government to those who want to get rid of it completely. In my municipality of Thorold, we actually had one mayoral candidate – Jim Handley – who fought his campaign partly around gutting regional government.

 Can that be done? I’d say probably not.

 For any and all you who may think we can turn back the calendar more than 40 years, when this regional government was created by the former Conservative government of Bill Davis, I’d look at the possibility that it costs property taxpayers across Niagara one heck of a lot less to pay for policing, household waste collection, water treatment and a hole bunch of other issues than it would if a local municipality had to pay for those services today. Chances are, a local municipality could not afford to pay for them.

So let’s get back to the regional government and an opportunity you, as taxpaying citizens have, to join the region’s chief administrative officer, Mike Trojan, for what the region is billing as “a community forum to help residents better understand Niagara Region’s programs, services and the budget process.”

 This special forum will take place this Thursday, November 18 at the Regional Headquarters (in Campbell East) in Thorold, Ontario off St. David’s Road and Schmon Parkway. Check a map on Google for further information.

 This is your chance to engage Niagara Region’s chief administrator in a discussion. Take advantage of it.

 (Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary of interest to residents in our greater, binational Niagara region.)

By Doug Draper

If it is the last ribbon cutting ceremony Peter Partington officiates in his political career, it was a good one – one for which he can feel proud and may be thanked for generations to come.

Wainfleet, Ontario Mayor Barbara Henderson joins Niagara Regional Chairman Peter Partington on property the regional government purchased along Lake Erie to provide the public with more access to our shorelines. Photo by Doug Draper

This Friday, November 12 – on an unusually warm and sunny morning for this time of year, and with the waters of Lake Erie glowing robin-egg blue behind him – the outgoing chairman of Niagara, Ontario’s regional government joined Wainfleet Mayor Barbara Henderson and other area delegates in a ceremonial opening of the first stretch of beachfront the regional government has purchased since recently launching its ‘Waterfront Enhancement Strategy’.

That strategy calls for “maximizing” public access to Niagara’s waterfronts, increasing public ownership of waterfront lands, and preserving and protecting the lands for future generations.

“Isn’t this a wonderful place,” said a beaming Partington to this reporter as he looked down from the dunes where the ribbon cutting took place to a beach stretching along the Lake Erie between Morgan’s Point and Long Beach in the Burnaby area of Wainfleet. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

When Kayo Roy informed me a few years back that he and fellow birder extraordinaire John Black were working on a book on birds populating our greater Niagara region, I assumed we were in for something good.

After all, Roy and Black have always been among a handful of birders a person like me, writing about environmental issues for many years, could count on for the most detailed and up-to-date information on birds in a region where our activities – industrial, agricultural, home building and so on – can have a significant impact on their health and diversity.

So why wouldn’t I assume we would get at least a good book out of these individuals.

Then finally this fall, I obtained a copy of Roy and Black’s freshly published book and “good” is not a strong enough word to describe this tour de force of a nature book. Beginning with the fabulous cover painting of a Ross’s gull soaring over the waters of the Niagara River, and leafing through more than 700 pages, almost each and every one of them featuring beautiful, full-color photos and paintings by some of the very best artists and photographers around, words like “stunning” and “gorgeous”

 ‘Niagara Birds’ is also a beautifully written book with Roy and Black inviting a host of well-known field naturalists and others who share their passion for nature to contribute chapters on subjects ranging from the history of ornithology in Niagara going back to the 1600s, the interaction of birds and vineyards, the impact of urban development on bird populations and the effect of West Nile Virus on owls. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

On Remembrance Day in Canada and Veterans Day in the United States, and on a week set aside every November for honouring our veterans – those who’ve fought and been fortunate enough to come home, and those who have all too often died for our country – I think it is also important to give some thought to those who sent them into battle.

Japanese soldiers firing down on Canadian troops and allies in the killing fields of Burma during the Second World War.

How honourable were the intentions of those who made the decision to send young people off to fight and possibly die? Were they as honourable as the many brave and anxious kids they sent?

Some most certainly were.

By most historical accounts, leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt who were stricken by decisions they finally felt no choice to make, to send you young people in to harms way. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a soldier and commander of allied troops during the Second World War before serving his country as president in the 1950s, once said the following; “I hate war as only a solider who has lived it can (and) only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility,  its stupidity.”

Hardly any kind of statement like that has come from former U.S. president George W. Bush or his brain, Dick Cheney – two Vietnam War era draft dodgers who needlessly sent young Americans on an unnecessary, preemptive war campaign in Iraq that has so far cost more than 4,000 American and possibly more than 100,000 Iraqi lives. In recent interviews over the publication of his post-presidential memoir ‘Decision Points’, George W. expresses no apologies for invading an Iraq that, in fact, had none of the “weapons of mass destruction” his administration used (along with the lie that Iraq had something to do with the 9/11 terrorist attacks) as propaganda for invading that country. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

In the former battle grounds Europe and others regions of the world, there are row after row of white markers above the graves of young Canadians and Americans who never got the chance to come home.

Graves of fallen Second World War soldiers in Normandy, France.

These young people, we are reminded every November 11 on Veterans and Remembrance Day, sacrificed their lives so the rest of us could live our lives in relative freedom – in democracies where we could express our views without death squads, and where we can actively engage in elections and vote.

Today, we have Americans and Canadians in the line of fire Afghanistan where the people living in that hapless country risk being beaten or killed, just for trying get an education or in some other way better their lives. At least 14 Afghan voters were killed in this past summer’s parliamentary elections.

And yet here we are in Canada and the United States, where we set aside occasions like Canada Day and the Fourth of July for parading our pride in country in front of the world, and less than half of us could be bothered to go out and vote this fall in important municipal elections in Ontario and midterm elections in the U.S. What a tribute that is to those who fought and died (and still are in) for our way of life! Continue reading →

A Commentary By Doug Draper

Well what can almost anyone who’s been following the leaps and bounds of police spending in Niagara, Ontario say except – here we go again!

Niagara Regional Police Chief Wendy Southall has done a better job than many of her predecessors in keeping police costs down. But they are still well above rate of inflation.

Unless you are a cop in Niagara, Ontario or one on the police force’s administration who continues enjoying at least a  three-per-cent salary increase every year while so many others in this “great recession” we’ve been living through over the past couple of years has either lost their job or had their job or wages downsized,

Another annual operating budget from the Niagara Regional Police Service’s board, and another request for a newly elected, not-yet-sworn regional council for another budget increase that will escalate the cost of policing above any measure of affordability in this region.

That’s right. Here we go again with another draft budget for the Niagara Regional Police Service that is well above an annual rate of inflation in Ontario, which, at 2.9 per cent, according to recent Bank of Canada figures, also adds up to the highest inflation rate reported this year for any province in the country.

But why let a few little things like a soaring inflation rate, above-average jobless figures and a “great recession” that seems far from over for too many of us sloshing around in the trenches out here get in the way of the public sector’s apparent God-given right to gold-plated entitlements. So it should hardly come as a surprised that the board representing the NRP last Friday tabled a draft operating budget for 2011 containing an almost 5.5 per cent increase. Continue reading →

By Fiona McMurran

At this time of year, we pause to remember and give thanks to our veterans. While we are doing so, let us also honour them with more than patriotic rhetoric. Those who have fought for Canada did not do so in order that this country, and the world, be committed to unending conflict, with no resolution.

Canadian Senator, retired general, humanitarian and author Romeo Dallaire

 Last week, I attended a presentation by Senator Roméo Dallaire, on a tour to promote his latest book. They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children: The Global Quest to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers focuses on the cause to which Dallaire has dedicated the last several years of his life. Yet he also spoke passionately and in some depth about Canadian foreign policy, especially in Afghanistan.  Dallaire is highly critical of the way the Afghan mission has been handled to date, and cautioned Canadians to take a realistic look at our country’s international commitments, and to consider the human cost when invention is too little and too late, as in the case of Rwanda. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

    “Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair” –Macbeth

Walmart wins!  They pay box-store style taxes, and provide low priced products to Welland’s budget conscious citizens. They buy in bulk, and nobody can compete with their prices. Great deal for everyone. Or is it?

 Local politicians claim that we need to foster small business enterprises. We need to save the downtown core and keep young people in Welland with good jobs.  Unfortunately, “Walmart” is anathema to “small business”.  Walmart, with its low-priced products and poor paying jobs, drives out small businesses…and medium-sized, and large ones too.

I recently visited one of the Niagara region’s last remaining small farmers, and he claims he can’t compete with the bulk buying approach to the economy. He told me stories of monster barges transporting farm goods from China. I heard similar stories when I went to get my tires changed. Big box stores sell both now: food and tires.  Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

It is another sad comment on today’s news media that so many people among us feel they get a far more insightful analysis of what is going on in our crazy world today from a “comedian” than from a “journalist.”

This sign almost says it all by soneone who would rather get their news on 'Comedy Central' these days than what pass them off as news sources. Photo from Jon Stewart's Daily News site.

Niagara At Large is founded on the premise that the mainstream media, so much of it owned today by corporations that are only in it to fill the pockets of their shareholders and have no real interest in delivering news to communities, is letting residents in this region and others across this continent down when it comes to giving them the breadth and depth of information they need to participate meaningfully in democracy.

Not to slam the reporters and editors that try their best to do some decent journalism at these chain-owned operations that hardly ever care to give them the resources they need to make that possible. I’ve been there and I quit, which is why so many journalists like me are trying to do something like put an alternative news site like this together or, more often, have just given up and taken a job in p.r.

But enough of that. Getting back to those “comedians,” I have always believed that the best of this bunch – going back to Mark Twain (considered more of a humorist) Will Rogers, Lenny Bruce and my personal favourite, George Carlin – were more than humorists or comedians. In fact, the comedy label always seemed an insult to these people who could often blast through the b.s. in our politics and culture with more dynamite than even the best columnists at papers like the Washington Post or New York Times. Continue reading →

Riot police sweep activists from the streets of Canada's largest city, with Queen's Park legislature in the background. Is this our future?

A Foreward by Doug Draper After months of petitioning and rallies from citizens across Ontario for an independent inquiry into the actions of security forces at last June’s G20 Summit in Toronto, a majority of MPPs voted against a private member’s bill by the NDP for the provincial government to hold one.

Arguing against the bill put forward by Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and defended in the legislature this November 4 by the party’s justice critic and Welland Riding member Peter Kormos, Toronto area MPP Mike Cole and others in the Liberal government argued that the inquiry should be held at the federal level. It was Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his federal Conservatives who decided to hold the summit in Toronto’s downtown in the first place – a decision Cole and his Liberal colleagues believe set the stage for a possible confrontation between legions of police shipped in from all over the country and citizens gathering at rallies on climate change, trade, poverty and other issues during the late June summer weekend. Continue reading →

BC Premier gets the boot over HST

A Commentary by Doug Draper
What is wrong with people here in Ontario!

Yes, that is right. I am talking about you and me, and our friends and relatives and neighbours across this province who will sit back and take just about anything the provincial or federal government dishes out to us – diminished hospital care and home care for the sick and our seniors, soaring tuition fees for our young people, billions wasted on high-priced consultants and, last but not least, the Harmonized Sales Tax or HST, for short.

I know. Some of you may be saying; ‘Hey Doug! What are you talking about? I am fighting back’. And I know there are some people out there – some of whom are reading and regularly contributing comments and columns of their own to Niagara At Large – who are fighting on a number of fronts for fairer, more affordable services and for better decisions from our governments around the quality of life in our communities. But I trust that those of you who are so engaged know I am talking about so many others who would rather just sit home in front of the boob tube watching mindless crap like ‘Jersey Shore’ or ‘Entertainment Tonight’ or an NHL hockey game hoping a fight will start. They’ll be among the first to whine when the provincial and federal governments come in and slaps another tax on them like the HST. But that’s about it. All they do is sit back and whine.

Not so in British Columbia, however. Continue reading →

 By Doug Draper

None of the usual debates between rivals surfaced at Niagara regional council this November 4. More than a week after municipal elections that will see a change in the number of faces in the council chamber, it was an evening for recognizing those who are leaving – some of them after more than three decades of service to the region.

Veteran Port Colborne regonal councillor Bob Saracino offers farewell words. Photo by Doug Draper

There was Bob Saracino, who was defeated in the October 25 municipal elections after serving 38 years on regional council as a representative for the City of Port Colborne, Ontario, including 18 years as that city’s mayor.

“It has been quite a ride,” Saracino told his council colleagues as he prepared to leave the chamber for the last time as a regional representative whose ride began two years after regional government was created in Niagara in 1970.

Saracino, who spent a good deal of his time during the past number of months trying to encourage his fellow councillors to support a provincial investigation into the way the Niagara Health System is managing hospital services in the region (something a majority of regional councillors decided note to support), said he feels “humbled” if he “played any small role” in making life better for people in a Niagara he called “the greatest region in this country.”

There was Bill Smeaton, a dean of regional politics whose history with the council goes back 33 years and who decided not to run for another term although there was no reason to believe he would not be re-elected in his home municipality of Niagara Falls. Smeaton, who also served two terms during that period as Niagara Falls’ mayor, went on to play key roles on regional committees, chaired the region’s planning committee at a time, during the past decade, of fundamental shifts to planning policies promoting more growth aimed at rejuvenating urban centres and less of the kind that sprawled into  Niagara’s country sides. Continue reading →

By Dan Wilson 

It never ceases to amaze me how companies that exploit and slaughter other animals twist and bury the truth in order to sell their “products” or boost their public image.

And they always get away with it. Why is that? Oh right, because we let them. Otherwise, we’d be complaining and writing letters to those who regulate and guarantee truth in advertising. 

If a billboard went up today advertising that cigarettes are good for you, or make you look cool, people would go ballistic. In fact, the ad would never get approved in the first place. 

But when it comes to animal agriculture, we turn a blind eye. We allow false advertising, even encourage it, so we’re not reminded of how our meat and other animal products get to our table. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

“So how’s that hopey, changey thing working for ya?”

Well, apparently not too well for most American, at least those (less than half of the country’s the eligible voters) who cared enough to go out to polls and vote in mid-term elections this November 2.

A majority of those who went to the polls were determined to kill any further march toward “socialism” or “fascism” – code words for any further attempt for progressive, dare anyone say “liberal” change in energy, education, environmental protection and other areas under the administration of President Barack Obama.

Sarah Palin, the former Alaskan governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate, and originator of that ‘hopey-changey ‘ line, was one of the big winners this November 2 as a majority of the seats in the U.S. Congress were taken over by Republicans, including those marching to the drums of a Tea Party hell bent on  ‘taking their country back’ from a president who not only has a strange name and is black, but who may be a Muslim and may not even be a bona fide American citizens, in the tea baggers’ view. Continue reading →

A Foreward by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Speaking at the annual summit of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario this November 2, Ontario’s Tory opposition leader Tim Hudak outlined plans for ‘turning the province around’ should he become the next premier.

Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak

In the next provincial election, said Hudak, Ontario will have a clear choice between Dalton McGuinty, whose policies, he went on to argue, are out of touch with families and businesses across the province.

“I firmly believe that economic growth and job creation relies on restoring consumer confidence and reducing the tax burden families face so they can start spending again,” added Hudak, “A PC Government will deliver a plan to govern that will give families real tax relief, so they have the ability to get household budgets back in order.”

“Ontario’s best days are yet to come,” the Fort Erie native and contender for the province’s top crown said. “We have a dedicated workforce, strong entrepreneurs, and vast and valuable resources. We just need the right kind of decisions and the strong leadership to move our province forward.”
 
As a service to our readers, Niagara At Large is including below the full text of Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak’s address to the Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s annual Economic Summit.

Since our launch last December, NAL has made it a practice to post ‘for-the-record’ texts of speeches, media releases and parliamentary hansard questions and comments by members of all political parties on matters of possible interest to our readers. NAL strives to do so without prejudice or preference for one political party over another. We leave it to you, our readers, to digest these texts and share your comments with us in the spirit of building this site as a virtual ‘town hall’ on matters of concern to us. Continue reading →

How do you feel about the idea of the provincial government educating residents about the possible risks cell-phone radiation pose to our health? If you live on the U.S. side of the border, what, if any policies do your governments have in place for addressing health concerns over cell phones?

Share your comments below the following November 3 media release from the Ontario NDP, introducing a private member’s bill that would require government to informing the public of the potential health risks posed by cell-phone radiation.

Remember that NAL only posts commentary by people willing to share their full and real names.

A Media Release from Ontario’s NDP Government On Cell Phone Safety
 
Queen’s Park – France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt and NDP Health Promotion Critic today introduced a Private Member’s Bill to educate Ontarians about the risks of cell phone radiation and to promote the safe use of cell phones.

Ontario NDP health critic France Gelinas

 
“The Ontario government has acknowledged that cell phones pose a potential health risk—particularly for children—but has failed to communicate this to Ontarians,” said Gélinas. “This bill will make sure that Ontarians have the information they need to use cellphones more safely.”
 
The Cell Phone Safety Bill would require retailers to post radiation levels next to cell phones they sell.
 
“I try to make the best choices for my daughter’s health,” said Jamie-Leigh Fairbrother, a Toronto mother of a nine-year-old. “Soon she will want a cell phone and I want to be able to make an informed decision. This Bill will allow me to do that.”  Continue reading →

A Foreward by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

When Niagara At Large posted a story in July of this year on John Pruyn – a 57-year-old amputee, federal civil servant and Christmas Tree farmer from Welland, Ontario – who had his artificial leg pulled off by security forces during the G20 summit in Toronto before he was detained in a cage for a weekend before finally being released without any charges, the response was to the post was overwhelming.

John Pruyn and his wife Susan at a rally in St. Catharines, Ontario this July, protesting security forces' actions at G20 summit in Toronto.

Within 48 hours, Pruyn’s story on Niagara At Large (still available by scrolling down to items posted in July on this site) received more than 30,000 visits from readers across North America. Hundreds shared comments expressing shock and anger at Pruyn’s story of how he was treated at the hands of law enforcement officers as he sat on lawns near an Ontario provincial legislature that is supposed to stand for something resembling democracy.

Among those who commented on Pruyn’s story, there were also those who argued that he may be lying or exaggerating about what happened to him and his family that weekend. Some argued that even if he wasn’t lying, he was to blame for what happened to him because he chose to go to Toronto during the G20 summit to attend what were intended to be peaceful rallies on climate change, world poverty, free trade and other matters of concern. If he didn’t want to get arrested, they advised, then he should have stayed home, closed his curtains, turned his TV on to an entertainment channel and minded his own business. Continue reading →

Niagara At Large offers the following news to readers on both sides of a Canada/U.S. border comprising our greater Niagara region.
 
 U.S. – Canada Relations in the 21st Century are undoubtedly one of the most important issues for Niagara.

U.S. Consul General Kevin Johnson to speak in Niagara on Canada-U.S. relations

As part of the Perspectives on Niagara Speakers Series, the St. Catharines – Thorold Chamber of Commerce will be hosting Kevin Johnson, Consul General at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto on Tuesday, November 16.

The event will be held at Ridley College’s Mandeville Theatre in St. Catharines, Ontario and is sponsored by Brock University.

“We are very fortunate to have Mr. Johnson come to Niagara,” explains Walter Sendzik, CEO of the St. Catharines – Thorold Chamber of Commerce. “His extensive experience in international diplomacy, economics, and public policy, combined with his position as the Consul General in Toronto will no doubt be of interest to Niagara’s business community.”

Niagara’s proximity to the United States and its connections to the Greater Toronto Area, position the region as one of the most important areas for North American trade. The current evolution of Niagara’s economy will be closely connected to the developments in the American economy. With more than 90 per cent of Niagara’s export market connected to the United States, it’s important to further understand the relationships between Canada and the U.S. moving forward. Continue reading →

By Dan Wilson

It seems it’s mostly bad news in the papers and on TV these days. You switch on the news and it’s one sad story after another; murder, political or corporate corruption, environmental devastation, etc. Well, in the immortal words of Monty Python, “and now for something completely different…”

A life quietly saved by Umair Afzal Abdul and Wahid Awan Gondal with the roaring waters of Niagara Falls behind them. Photo by Dan Wilson

This past Wednesday, October 27th a friend and I were walking down by the Horseshoe Falls taking pictures. It was a beautiful night, with lots of people enjoying the warm weather, the majesty of the falls and the colourful illumination. As we walked past a police cruiser, my friend and I were approached by two young men who asked if we would take their pictures in front of the falls. They said it would mean a lot to them, so of course, we did.

After snapping a half-dozen shots, and exchanging contact information so we could add them as friends on Facebook, Abdul and Umair, both from Toronto, explained why it was so important to have their pictures taken. They told us that an elderly woman, who apparently had a little too much to drink, tried to commit suicide by jumping over the falls minutes before my friend and I had arrived. Continue reading →

A Foreward by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Niagara At Large recently posted a story about a bylaw Niagara, Ontario’s outgoing regional council posted late this September that limits members of the public from speaking at full meetings of the council.

Walter Sendzik, St. Catharines-Thorold Chamber of Commerce chief, fighting to keep doors open for public at regional council meetings.

This media outlet and others in Niagara have received numerous letters and calls from residents who believe that the section of this bylaw that requires individuals and organizations to either receive a formal invitation or receive a two-thirds vote from the council before being granted an opportunity to speak defies the principles of democracy and claims of transparency and accountability by our regional government.

In that spirit, Niagara At Large is posting the contents of a recent media release by Walter Sendzik, the chief executive of the St. Catharines-Thorold Chamber of Commerce, one of the largest business groups in Niagara, vowing to press a newly elected regional council in the weeks and months ahead to overturn the restrictions on public delegations as currently written out in this bylaw.

Following is the Chamber’s release and we encourage you to share your own comments on this issue in the boxes available at the end of this post. Please remember to attach your real name to your comment or, under our transparency policy, it won’t see the light of day on this site. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

Nearly 3000 innocent lives were lost on September 11, 2001, and Osama Bin Laden is still alive and well. Instead of completing the task at hand in Afghanistan, Americans diverted their task to Iraq, a country with no Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Many people were lead to believe that Iraq was in some way related to Osama Bin Laden . It wasn’t. It was a de-militarized, largely secular country ruled by a despot. ( Of all the Arab countries, Iraq would have been the least receptive to religious fanatics.) Iraq also has the last easily accessible oil on the planet. Did America’s citizens want to compromise their search for Osama Bin Laden? No. Were they lead to believe that the Iraq situation was linked to Osama Bin Laden? Yes. Misinformation failed democracy. Continue reading →